ICONIC: An early photo of the historic Shoalhaven property, The Eyrie taken circa 1927.
ANOTHER woman who has fond memories of The Eyrie is Nowra resident Lesley Spresser.
Mrs Spresser, or Lesley Wallis as she was then, moved into the property when she was “just a tot” with her mother Blanche and sister Joan.
“My father died when I was about 18 months-old and we moved up there and stayed until I was about 12 I suppose,” she said.
“It would have been around 1949 we left.
“Mum used to sell scones and jam from a little tea house.
“I remember going to the Beaumont School on the Valley side of the mountain. We used to walk there and back each day.
“There were lots of families around: the Lumsdens, Loosemores and Boxsells.
“Up the hill were Grandma and Grandpa Lumsden, down in the Valley was the Boxsell farm and Uncle Sam Lumsden was further down, while near to school was the Wheateys.
“Later on I would catch the bus into St Michael’s in Nowra and then we eventually moved into Leatham Avenue in Nowra.”
She can vividly remember the cedar cutters coming up and over the mountain, with the trucks and can remember one semi-trailer rolling on the Valley side.
“The driver ended up being a relation,” she laughed.
“The milk trucks would come up twice a day, Hilton Cox used to drive one.”
Underneath the house, which is all enclosed now, was open and the chooks used to roost there, while at the little lookout, which is still opposite the home and looks down the Valley, she would coax the king parrots in for visitors at a cost of two shillings.
“We had no hot water and the toilet was out the back way down in the bush,” she said.
“We had no luxuries - it was a tough life but a good life up there.”